The EastEnder Who Went West!

Wendy Richard tells Roz D'Ombraine Hewitt about her role as Albert
Square's Pauline Fowler -- and about the time she went West as the
glamorous Miss Brahms . . .

In her recent TV series Grace and Favour,
Wendy Richard gratefully swapped Pauline Fowler's comfy cardigans and
woolly hats for more glamorous glad rags. "It was nice to wear
expensive clothes for a change," Wendy admitted,
"even if walking
through farmyard manure in high heels rather took the shine off things!"

Wendy returned in the series as Miss Brahms, the saucy sales
assistant from Grace Brothers. "Getting most of the cast back
together again was lovely," Wendy says.
"It had been almost six
years since we were all together, but we chatted away as if we'd seen
each other the day before. Mollie Sugden still makes delicious jam
-- I'm hopeless at it, but do brilliant pickled onions!"

Cooking is one of Wendy's favourite hobbies.
"I love hunting
round shops for old cook books, particularly the ones they gave away
with new cookers in the forties and fifties. They have all the
basic recipes so I just add a touch of wine or garlic for that
continental flavour!"

Wendy confesses another passion is solving crossword puzzles.
"I only started them recently and now I'm addicted! But they're
very good for keeping the brain cells working. At weekends, a
group of us at our local do the competition crossword which is extra
hard, but we're still hoping to win!"

Wendy's husband, Paul Glorney, a carpet fitter, is more likely to be
found at the dart board. "He's team captain of the Travelling Scalliwags which raises money for charity. Recently they gave
£200 worth of toys to a children's cancer ward," she says
proudly.

Wendy's a Westender at heart, and after eighteen months of marriage,
the couple moved from her London flat into a beautiful house -- just
five hundred yards down the road. They decided to do the removal
[moving] themselves as it was so near, but their efforts almost got them
arrested!

"Coming out of our old flat one evening, I was carrying bedspreads
and Paul the big marble clock I'd bought for his birthday, when we
bumped into two policemen. "They gave us a funny look and Paul
said jokingly, 'Don't worry -- we're only burglars. Luckily, they
didn't believe him."

Wendy and Paul were together for four years before tying the knot
last year, on the anniversary of the day they met.

Wendy admits that being married has made a huge difference.
"It's given me an inner peace," she says happily.

Sadly, Miss Brahms' love life has been less successful, Wendy tells
me. "After her failed love affair with an amusement arcade owner from
Newport Pagnell,
Miss Brahms was pleased to be away from the bright lights and enjoying
the peace and tranquility of the countryside for a while."

Not so Wendy. After months of filming the series in
Gloustershire [sic], she
decided she prefers the countryside in small doses.
"As a typical Cancerian, I'd rather be by the sea. There are too many insects in
the country and I'm terrified of creepy crawlies! We were shooting
a scene while sitting on a haycart when a spider fell down the front of
my blouse! I screamed so loudly the sound bloke said I nearly
burst his eardrums."

Wendy could easily have given the Grace and Favour team tips on hotel
management. "My parents were publicans and after my dad died I
helped Mum run a bed and breakfast hotel in
St. Pancras. Between going to drama school I did the
bookings, accounts, waited on tables, cooked the breakfasts and changed
the beds. Now I'm allergic to housework." Wendy laughs.
She now has a very good lady to help with cleaning.
"I'm not
nearly as domesticated as Pauline."

Even after seven years, Wendy's not the least bit fed up playing
Pauline Fowler, the downtrodden housewife.

"I have a great affection for her -- and she's been very good to me.
I certainly wouldn't want to change her. Pauline still has some of
her original clothes and often seems to wear the same old things, but
who hasn't something in their wardrobe they've had for donkey's years
[seemingly forever]?"

And although the role is never short of drama, Wendy admits that
playing Pauline, the harassed housewife and mum has a downside.
"Because you identify and sympathise with the characters, it's easy to
be affected by their problems. When Arthur had his breakdown it
really affected Bill
Treacher who plays him so well -- and me.

"You try not to take your work home, but it's obviously difficult at
times to step outside those feelings when the camera stops rolling."

That's one reason why Wendy welcomed her return to comedy. The
other is her scamp of a puppy, Shirley Brahms,
born on the first day of filming Grace and Favour and now a much
loved member of Wendy's household.

"She's torn my new slippers to pieces, but she's so lovable I
wouldn't be without her," Wendy says.